Week 11: April 24 – May 1, 2016

This is what last week looked like.
It’s everything we needed to take down the mountain
to tend to everything that needing tending.
There was real estate stuff, yard work,
business calls, family get-togethers,
eye exams, meetings, and much, much more.
Because we weren’t home to receive mail for The 70273 Project,
I have no new block count for you,
but don’t think that because this cat was away,
The 70273 Project sat languishing
and watching the mice play.
Several days were devoted to getting the word out,
and I pulled a couple of all-nighters
to get caught up with processing the blocks
I have in hand.
Plus – drum roll, please – I sent the first bundle
of blocks to the kind and talented one called Kitty Sorgen
who offered to piece our first quilt top.

The day before we headed down the mountain,
The Engineer and I got our grandparents’ shot.
Got it right there in the middle of aisle 6
with the paper towels, dog food,
and bathroom cleaning supplies.
It was a week filled with hugging, patting, and lugging,
and I want y’all to know that my arm still hurts
over a week later,
and the knot is now kinda’ spreading across my arm.

Monday found me at my friend Mari Ann’s house,
sitting on her beautiful back porch

with a fantastic group of crazy creative women,

listening to a funny, personable Southern man
named Clifford Brooks III read his poems to us.
I haven’t showered since this hug.
And he promised to put an ad for The 70273 Project in his little magazine.

Wednesday found me lunching with
my Tiger Girls, the gals I
graduated from high school with.
(And I’ll have you know that not a one of them
was social promoted.)
Dianna (first one on the right)
is gonna’ host a block-making party in June.
You can bet your sweet patootey that not a one of these gals
will be set loose with a pair of scissors.

On Thursday morning, I told the members of
Mother’s church circle group about The 70273 Project. They’re going to spend their last meeting of the year making blocks.
This is some of the gals, and we’re holding
In Our Own Language 1:1, the first
of Nancy’s drawings I ever stitched.
That’s my mother there on the far right, holding the book.
Just to her left is Carol, who’s 95 years young.
Yes, really.

Saturday found us up early to go get cat food for Mother’s boys
then heading over to the World War II Heritage Days
where we had a table set up for The 70273 Project.
We had a fantastic location, a fabulous day, and
made lots of new friends. Here are a few of them . . .

This is Marissa Shenkle. She trains service dogs.

Barbara-Jean Buckley

Emma Banze made her block in honor of her Uncle Mark.

L to R: Chase Hughes, Adalee Beasley, and Michelle Hughes
Michelle once taught special ed . . . until she was
required to teach a curriculum based on the
chronological age of her students instead of their abilities.

Michelle Thaxton

Karissa McCoy

Meet Dan Klein. He was serving his country  in Europe in 1940.

Joanna Griffin

Ross Greene, who recently finished writing a book
called A Fortress and a Legacy.
Ross spent 6.5 years researching this book, crafted around
a bundle of letters his uncle wrote home in World War II.
I hope you get a chance to meet Ross and read his book.
He’s a man who isn’t afraid to dream big.
I like that.

Brittany Rutledge

Steve Ulman

Thomas Eastin

Kevin Barton

and

Zachary Freeman,
a most delightful young man
who happened by the table on his own
and said, “Tell me about The 70273 Project.)
I tell y’all what: our future is in good hands
with Zach. Real good hands.

Saturday culminated in a dinner dance
where we were lucky enough to hear
The Freedom Belles perform.
Our daughter, Alison, formed The Freedom Belles
several years ago, and she says they have the best job in the world:
entertaining veterans.
Their motto? Let freedom sing.
going L to R that’s
Missy Gossett, Renee Cooper, and Alison Chambers.
If y’all need some entertainment for a special event,
hire them cause they’ll make you look good,
Real good.
I promise.

All in all it was a good week, a fine week, an exhilarating week
(though this introvert needed a little quiet time for a couple of days).
We met a lot of people and introduced them to The 70273 Project,
and I want y’all to know that not a single person we met
had ever heard of the T4 Program.

After the dinner dance, The Engineer and I
exited stage left, took my mother home,
loaded the truck, then drove on back up the mountain.
We came close to being seriously injured or killed
by some crazy driver who careened back and forth
across multiple lanes of traffic on I-85 in Atlanta.
It happened in maybe 3 seconds (though while it was happening,
time slowed down to a crawl),
and for the next hour or so, two thoughts and a question
kept running through my head:
Thank you to The Engineer for skills maneuvering us
so that the crazy driver missed us by the 3″ necessary
to keep us out of harm’s way
and
Thank you to whichever angel was riding shotgun that night
and
If I’d’ve died, who would take over The 70273 Project
and see it through?

We landed back atop the mountain around 2 a.m.,
slept till 5:30, then got up and headed over to Hendersonville
to fetch our new bees.
We hope they’ll be happy here.

And that, y’all, is how we spent week 11 of The 70273 Project.